The Island
by happyunderground
Summary: Ren and Kyoko wash up on a deserted island.
1. Prologue

**After the story break (there's only one, you'll know it when you see it), I wrote the story while listening to "Battle Against Clown" from the Akira soundtrack. I think it matches the mood pretty well.**

* * *

"Mogami-san."

"Hai, Tsuruga-san!"

"You should just get some sleep."

Ren opened one eye to look over at her. Kyoko was sitting upright in her seat and had clearly just slapped herself again to keep herself awake.

"Ah, no, I'm fine!" Kyoko smiled at him.

Ren had started pretending to sleep half an hour ago in the hopes that she would relax and let herself take a clearly needed rest. When they got on the private jet hours ago, she had already seemed exhausted.

There had been multiple times that Kyoko had fallen asleep in front of him, and she always seemed so horrified to see him when she first woke up. Ren's chest tightened a bit in pain just thinking about her terrified expression. _Am I that scary?_ But this time he was pretty sure that wasn't the only problem. And what could he ask her? _Do you not want me to see your sleeping face?_ Too creepy. _Do you not trust me?_ He had a painfully realistic vision of her response, or rather her lack of response, to that one.

Ren shook his head, dispelling the thoughts. _Did she have trouble sleeping last night?_ he wondered. "…are you nervous?"

Kyoko's eyes slid over to him and she adopted a grim expression as her voice cracked out, "H-hai…"

Ren and Kyoko were currently on their way to on-site filming in Argentina. There, Tsuruga Ren and Mogami Kyoko would join the cast and crew of their newest drama. Ren still wasn't sure why they had to travel to Argentina for filming, but apparently the director was a stickler for authenticity. And considering this drama was handed to them by the president as a "personal request", Ren guessed that money wasn't much of a concern to the director.

Kyoko was taking the new drama very seriously. Lory had hinted that this drama would be a great opportunity for her to expand her acting skills and embrace some forbidden emotions.

Ren was suspicious.

Two weeks ago, at the start of June, the director, who had written the drama himself, had personally sent customized copies of the scripts to each of the actors for the first few episodes. The scripts didn't include any scenes they weren't included in. Ren and Kyoko still didn't know who any of the other actors were. _Though_ , he thought, _if they were from LME, they surely would be sharing a flight…right?_ Instead, it was just the two of them and the pilot. _Alone_.

Ren snapped out of it, watching Kyoko turn back to look out the pitch-black window, worrying her lower lip.

"Mogami-san, you have nothing to worry about."

No response.

Ren sighed and looked around the cabin, just before Kyoko muttered something.

"Eh?" His head shot around to look at her. "What did you say?"

Kyoko tucked in her chin and looked up at him through her eyelashes, her golden eyes peering up at him.

Ren licked his lips, as subtly as he could, and gulped, less subtly.

"I said _easy for you to say_." Kyoko admitted, still muttering. "You're the hero of the story."

Though he knew he needed to take the series with the utmost professionalism, Ren had been trying to get her to open up about her script ever since he got his. He had called her that same night to ask if she had wanted to talk about the series. He had called her the next night, too, to see what she thought about the setting. Yashiro had helped him find her at lunch time the following week to talk about the filming schedule, and she had even cooked dinner for him the night, though her sour mood had prevented his progress in talking to her about the drama.

In his attempts, he had tried opening up about his character, just a little bit, or at least how he felt about it. He didn't want to betray the director by spoiling anything for Kyoko.

But in all his attempts, he had been unable to get even a word about Kyoko's character, and she had done nothing but pout. That had only made him more desperate.

So he resorted to the only thing that had helped stop her bad attitude.

"Mogami-san, are you going to have this same attitude in front of the director?"

Kyoko turned her head to look out the window again, paling.

Ren sighed. "I'm sure that in time you will feel more sympathetic towards your character." The repeated assurances fell from Ren's lips automatically. "You don't regret acting any of your previous roles, right?"

She looked back up at him. "Do you promise…"

Ren held eye contact with her, but she suddenly turned her head again. Ren reached out for her chin and turned her head to look back up at him, though her eyes avoided his and she grimaced.

"What?" Ren asked, "what can I promise you?"

And she peered into his eyes. "Promise me you won't judge me for what my character does?"

Ren's heart started beating a little louder. _Wishful thinking_ , he thought. Instead, he let a smile surface onto his features. "Of course not, Mogami-san."

She held his eyes for another moment, then finally seemed to relax. He wanted to probe further, but she seemed reassured, and had finally leaned back against her seat.

"Thank you, Tsuruga-san."

Her eyes closed, and Ren watched as she ever-so-slightly nuzzled her head against the seat, a smile curving the corners of her pink lips upward. And Ren, despite telling himself that this was exactly why she didn't want to fall asleep in front of him, couldn't help but watch. Unconsciously, he mirrored her position as he gazed at her sleeping face and let his wishful thinking send him to a peaceful sleep.

* * *

The sudden feeling of his stomach dropping woke Ren with a start.

A cacophony filled the cabin as rain pounded against the plane and the plane groaned against the wind.

The lights were off.

The plan was tipping forward.

Hurriedly, Ren looked over at Kyoko to see her eyes opening in alarm.

"Stay here, I'm going to check on the pilot."

Kyoko's eyes were wide and frozen, but she managed to nod to Ren as he grasped at the seat belt before it finally unbuckled.

Grabbing onto the headrests of the empty seats lining the aisle, Ren made his way to the pilot's cabin.

Only the emergency running lights lit the cabin.

Ren was at the pilot's side in a heartbeat, shaking the man's shoulders.

The man's head rolled forward and Ren felt his blood go cold.

Quickly, he looked around at the flight instrument dashboard. He grabbed the transmitter radio, pressing buttons in a panic, shouting "Mayday! Mayday! Can anyone hear me?!" _How long have we been drifting?_

"Tsuruga-san?!" He heard Kyoko's cry just as the plane tipped forward.

He fell forward, towards the windshield, and in the gushing storm, he saw a terrifying sight that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

The black and white waves of the ocean directly in front of him, only a few kilometers away.

 _Minutes_.

 _Barely_.

He reached out for the yoke in the hopes of steering the plane back into a stable altitude, thoughts pounding inside his head that he had never learned how to operate a plane. As he grasped the yoke, he sensed Kyoko running into the cabin, gasping at the sight of the pilot.

The plane lurched, and Ren felt his ankle twist below him as he desperately tried to stay grounded as his body surged towards the windshield again, still grasping onto the yoke.

The yoke wouldn't move. He pulled, he pushed, but it did not give way.

"He's dead," Kyoko cried as she checked the pilot's pulse.

Fear coursed through them as they looked up at each other, and the moment felt like eons longer than the second it was.

Kyoko furrowed her brow, a desperate intensity filling her at the sight of Ren's helplessness.

"Go! Let's go!" And she grabbed his hand, pulling him.

The pain in his ankle shot straight up his body, but his cry was unheard over the shrieking of the aircraft and he gritted his teeth as he and Kyoko tried to run up the ever-steeper aisle to the emergency exit.

Ren grabbed the headrest of the seats they'd been in and grasped around underneath the seats, pulling the cushions off of the seats before he spotted the life preservers.

"Ren! Let's go!" Kyoko cried as her hands shook on the red handle of the emergency exit.

Dragging himself towards her, hissing as his foot protested, Ren threw the life vests around her and himself, even as the plane tipped and the entire metal deathtrap howled around them.

Ren buckled the straps of their life vests. "Open it!" He cried.

And Kyoko turned the handle as the two of them pushed the door outward, detached, watching it whip into the frantic wind and disappear out of sight. It was even louder now, and the wind pushed against their buckling knees, the air surging up to meet them.

Ren stood in the threshold of the doorway, soaked in an instant, his arms around Kyoko, unable to see anything but torrents of rain.

"Do we jump?" Kyoko called, her adrenaline ebbing from her as the plane hurtled into darkness.

"We jump."

Another stretched second followed before Ren tightened his arms around Kyoko again, willing himself to not think about what they were about to do.

They couldn't see the ocean.

They didn't know how far down the drop was.

He wasn't even sure that it was the ocean that they'd land on.

Ren's only thought was that if they stayed until impact with the water, or worse, the ground, they'd be a lot worse off in the plane.

He tightened his hold on Kyoko, pulling her against his chest, their life vests twisting around them, scraping at their necks.

"Hold on to me!" Ren shouted above the noise as Kyoko turned in the threshold, wrapping her arms around him and grasping onto his life vest.

He looked down at her, and she nodded. He looked down, outside. He faltered, wondering if they had time to wait until they could see the ocean, before remembering the haunting image of the ocean rising up meet them.

 _There's no time._

"Now!" He shouted, mostly for himself, as he launched them out of the doorway on his good foot.

His arms stayed wrapped around her, desperately, as he tried to right them feet-first, the air howling around him. It was pitch-black.

Though his lungs were empty, and Kyoko's life vest was becoming far too slippery for him to hold on to, he felt only immense relief as they plunged into the ocean.

* * *

 **I'm psyched for this story. I know I haven't finished Kyoko's Eventful Three Days yet, but I've been thinking about this story a lot.**

 **I'm not sure how often I'll be updating or how long this story might go on, but if you're up for a story about Ren and Kyoko trying to survive on a deserted island, please keep an eye out for this one.**

 **Now, I've definitely never been in this situation, and hopefully none of you have either, but if you find any problems with the story at any point, please let me know so that I can improve it. I know that, already, this situation is farfetched (no one else on the plane? Yoke wouldn't move? Radio didn't work? Geez!), so please let me know if there are ways I can make it more believable. I want to create a realistic setting for this story that will be handled with gravity.**

 **Thank you for reading!**


	2. Tides

***cowers* Don't shoot! Read it first!**

* * *

A dry, scratchy cough forced itself out of Ren's throat.

His eyes opened slowly and he blinked. And he blinked again, for he saw nothing but black.

Startled, his head jerked up from the rough, scratchy resting place it had found, and then his eyes rested upon the first thing he could see in the pitch black night.

A wet mop of cropped hair lay snuggled close to his chest.

"Mogami-san!" he called out, his hand reaching out to her shoulder.

Waves lapped at Ren's sodden, leather-clad feed and denim-clad legs as he twisted to face Kyoko. His plastic life preserver scratched at the back of his neck and he shook her shoulder with his hand. "Mogami!" he shouted as she rocked onto her back before curling towards him suddenly, a terrible cough leaving her as she coughed up seawater. Ren breathed a sigh of relief.

Kyoko wiped her mouth, shivering, before looking upward to see Ren's concerned gaze. "Where…are we?" She asked mutedly, squinting to see over his shoulder and around them.

"I have no idea," was Ren's reply.

They pulled themselves into sitting positions, flinching as the rough ground scraped against their palms. Ren looked closer—"It's coral."

Kyoko wrapped her arms around herself, her clothing cold and thin and wet, her life vest squeaking against her wet skin. Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she rotated herself both this way and that—"It's an island."

To call it an island was very generous. From what Ren and Kyoko could tell, they were stranded on a small outcropping of coral, hardly longer than Ren in diameter, in the middle of the ocean. Though there was an abundance of stars in the sky, a quantity of stars Kyoko had never seen before, there was no moon. In the darkness, they had no way of telling if they were just one mile from land or a dozen.

Seemingly nothing inhabited this outcropping except them, and, Ren assumed, a number of creatures hosted just underwater by the reef.

Neither said anything more for a while. Slowly they scooched back towards the center of the "island", their heavy, soaked clothes weighing them down and the waves (though gentle) furthering the chill in their bones.

At a loss, Ren took to gazing at the sky, wondering if he could figure out where in the world they were. Suddenly, unbidden, he acutely recollected the adrenaline that propelled him when he awoke in the falling aircraft just—hours ago? Minutes ago? He could not guess, but he was suddenly beating himself up for not being more resourceful when he was in the pilot's cabin. He could have found a map, or seen their location on a radar detector, or spent longer trying to get the radio working…

But the image of the monochromatic ocean rising up to meet him haunted him yet again, and he forgave himself for not spending more time in that screaming metal deathtrap. Shuddering at the thought, his eyes were drawn to the silent girl next to him, only to see—

"Mogami-san, what's wrong?" Ren asked, alarmed. Tears were streaming down Kyoko's face.

Kyoko gazed up at him, her golden eyes the only color in his sight, peering into him, tears still flowing down her cheeks.

Ren cringed at his stupid question, _of course_ everything _is wrong, now_ , and stuttered thinking of how to best comfort the girl of his dreams, his hands raising as he prepared to embrace her.

"You said," Kyoko cried, her voice just barely hiccupping, "you'd want a wristwatch, a survival knife, and that sh-sheep p-pillow if you were alone on a deserted island."

Ren deadpanned, his hands frozen in the air. Kyoko clenched her eyes shut as she began to wail: "But now you're stuck with m-m-meee when you could have grabbed your luggage instead!"

 _What did I expect?_ Thought Ren as he struggled to keep a smirk at bay. Instead his face spread into a warm smile. His hand reached up to touch her cold cheek with a feather-light touch. "But Mogami-san," he began gently, "I'm not alone."

Kyoko's eyes flashed open and her tears seemed to immediately dry at Ren's heavenly smile.

For just a moment, Ren thought he saw a shimmer of recognition and affection in those golden—

"I'm going to get some rest." Kyoko immediately announced as she turned her back to him and nearly threw herself onto the rocky ground, her hands grasping her shoulders.

Ren's arm went limp as he let his hand fall to the coral beneath him. Again, he thought, _What did I expect?_ and he laid upon his back, his hands cradling the back of his skull, and gazed upward yet again.

He breathed in deeply, exhaling contentedly. He often traveled, and traveled all around the world, but never did his schedule ever allow him to simply gaze upon such a magnificent sky of stars.

Somewhere, in that nagging professional corner of his brain, he realized that must mean they were far from any kind of civilization sophisticated enough to produce light pollution.

But, and perhaps it was because the reality of the situation had yet to sink into him, Ren felt more at peace than he had been for weeks. Perhaps part of that, he grimaced, was due to his constant concern lately that the Boss was forcing Kyoko into some kind of risky metamorphosis that would rapidly develop her ability to love—or likely hurt her in the process.

Ren knew that this development was critical, crucial, vital, of course, for the young girl, but Ren also knew that he had to go through his own metamorphosis and reconcile his past before he could be a good enough man for her. Perhaps he was just worried that Lory would force her to shoot past him emotionally and be scooped up by some playboy while he longed from afar.

So at the moment, with Kyoko (however resistant she was to charms) lying just a few feet to his side, and with no one here to steal her away or force her into risky situations where he could not protect her, Ren felt quite at peace.

And just as the thought of Kyoko sleeping beside him lulled him to sleep on the plane, Ren again found himself dozing off, this time beneath a sea of stars, with seemingly only the two of them in the entire world.

* * *

A chill went up Kyoko's spine and she woke with a start.

 _Still pitch-black_ , she thought, before she noticed something more concerning.

There was nothing beneath her.

With a sudden yelp, Kyoko twisted herself around as she floated in the ocean. Spinning around, she noticed Ren floating nearby.

"Tsuruga-san!" she called out, swimming towards him, moving faster when she could not tell if he was face-down or face-up. "Tsuruga-san!" she cried again, reaching him.

Both pushing and pulling his body at the same time, she righted him in the water and she heard him gasp awake, a moan leaving him as he sputtered water onto his life preserver.

"What is it this time?" Ren directed at their surroundings—or lack thereof—as he tried to get an idea of what had happened.

"I think the tides came in. That island is probably submerged by now."

"Great," Ren bit, annoyed.

Kyoko said nothing, trying to get her bearings. "Let's scan the horizon and look for land. Maybe we can swim to safety."

Ren said nothing but nodded in assent. Kyoko and Ren paddled in the water to keep themselves afloat and slowly turned, scanning the horizon, until at one point she stopped, steadied herself, and squinted.

She pointed with her finger until Ren, after scanning the rest of the horizon to no success, noticed her gesture and followed her gaze.

"Doesn't it look like something is blocking all the stars?"

Ren, too, steadied himself and slowly scanned the area along where the sky and sea met. True enough, there seemed to be a blacker-than-black scar along the horizon where no stars appeared.

"I don't know if we have a better choice at this point," Ren admitted with a sigh. He could not feel the ocean floor, but he could feel his ankle stiffening up as he swam. "We'll get fatigued if we try to stay afloat forever. Our only other alternative is to try to find the coral reef outcropping again and try to stay grounded until the sun comes up."

Kyoko said nothing at this idea. Both were exhausted, seemingly not having slept much, and had again found themselves making decisions in an emergency.

"Okay," Kyoko agreed, without any energy behind it.

"I'm going to tie the straps of our life preservers together," Ren suggested, thankful that they had kept the vests on when they fell asleep. Kyoko nodded, and Ren's hand found a long, unused strap on Kyoko's vest that he tied along with his. It gave a leash of a few feet. "Let's go," he announced, and they began their trek through the dark sea.

Some time passed as they swam forward, the only sounds the occasional squeaking of their skin against the plastic life preserver or the waves lapping against them. Ren kept his eyes fixed upon that black mar against the stars and figured Kyoko was doing the same.

After a while, he would periodically ask Kyoko to take a break so that she wouldn't cramp up, and he, along with the current fortunately pushing them towards their destination, would pull them for some time before Kyoko insisted on swimming again.

"Look!" Kyoko eventually called out. "The sky is getting lighter, right?"

Ren glanced up, seeing the sky grow lighter to their far left. "Dawn is approaching."

They continued, and as the sky grew brighter they started looking around their horizon again.

It was both good news and bad news to Ren that they were indeed headed towards the only land they could see. Good news, because it meant they had not wasted any energy and had indeed chosen the best path, and bad news because it was seemingly the _only_ path. All Ren could guess so far was that they were headed towards yet another island, this one much much larger than the outcropping of coral before. Ren only hoped it showed signs of civilization soon.

Kyoko, too, kept her eyes fixated on their goal, which was becoming more and more obviously an island.

She saw a stretch of white beach, black and brown trees, green foliage.

With no signs of life.

Silently, Ren and Kyoko got closer, the island filling their vision. They did not notice that the waves had begun cresting upon them until—

With a yelp, Kyoko was pulled back from Ren and he twisted as their cord jerked on his life vest, and—

A great wave crested upon Ren, pulling him underwater with great force. He forced his eyes open underwater and reached out to Kyoko as another wave crested on top of him, pushing him down towards the rocky floor, and this time Ren felt a terrible _snap_ in his ankle as it twisted against the rocks, and he released all of his air in an underwater howl as Kyoko swam upwards, pulling their connected strap to drag him upward.

Surfacing, waves still cresting upon them, Kyoko sputtered "We're almost there, let's go!" and swam along with the waves towards the beach. Ren, trying not to use his injured foot, limp-swam behind her until his hands crawled upon the sandy ocean floor, the beach just a short length ahead.

* * *

 **Sorry it's taken me so long to update! These past couple months have been extremely hectic as I finally quit my caustic old job and got a position at my dream company. But, of course, I am a mere temporary employee and I need to work extra hard to get hired full-time. Wish me luck!**

 **But enough excuses. I decided to sit down and watch Louie Schwartzberg's "Moving Art: Forests" on repeat until I got this chapter out. It's a bit more relaxed than what you've just read, but it's inspiring me to get into the setting. If you're down to watch beautiful cinematography of forests around the world in tune to some classical music, I highly recommend it.**

 **While I haven't actually decided where in the world Ren and Kyoko have washed up, for my research I've decided it's somewhere near the Galapagos islands, and that was what I researched for information on high and low tide. Basically I'm thinking Ren and Kyoko washed ashore around 8 or 9 at night (relatively low tide, and relatively dark) and floated off around 1 or 2 am (high tide, and even darker).**

 **Please let me know if you noticed anything or if you have any questions! I want to do my best to make this realistic. I haven't yet decided how much fun and fluff we'll get, but so far it's been pretty serious haha. Let me know what you'd like to see. : )**


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